III. Tango

ich geb' Dir einen Engel mit

Essay by Vilnis Vējš

Overwhelming anxiety without any obvious reason and a spontaneous, inadequate reaction to an insignificant irritant are signs characteristic to a panic attack. If it has been experienced, the
indicators can be easily recognized in Roman Drits' (1986) photographs. If it has never been experienced, the photographs will probably remind of something else. Panic lovers never listen to
the advice to calm down! Pursuant to the obsession of contemporary art to immortalize fleeting impulses, in Drits' works there are no references as to what and why has been portrayed. Yet,
the author reveals that the photographs are related to his experience – 'it is my own personal egoistic diary (taking photographs in hiding) about my personal comfort zone, which had to be
destroyed', he writes. The change has been caused by moving to another country.

'Experience' is a word that is often used in the annotations of artworks. Experience is what is required in work interviews. Obtaining experience is the most often mentioned motivation for
travelling. Then why is it so seldom related to the joy of discovery?

A wish to have experience is similar to the wish to have time. It is not possible to stop the time – it always flies. Experience builds up. It is homogeneous, because it is not possible to
move in time. No one can step in another experience as if in a vehicle. In contrary to the opinion of headhunting specialists, experience is nothing valuable. You can't hand it over to
someone else. Experience is always traumatic – '...including fear, which has to be overcome, when everything esle undergoes an unexpected change' – writes Drits.

Details that have attracted attention, although there is nothing important there, emerge from a darker periphery. Increased contrast and a grainy image that doesn't allow seeing nuances, are
equivalent to panic. In a while, its cause cannot be identified anymore.

Widening of the European Union created an illusion that space has no importance. That there are no borders, no distance and that a place is not significant. The virtual space approves it –
yes, yes, you can speak to someone who is miles away, you see his image, you hear his voice. He might be even half-naked – Roman Drits has made a photograph series Webcam
Portraits, where his chat partners can be seen. The photographs explode an illusion – the chat partners are ghosts with big heads, wide-opened eyes, with the light cast either from
underneath or from the sides, on a never-changing cheap and banal room background. Some time ago such phantoms appeared in expressionists' phantasies.

'Show up!' (word play – the title of the series Paradies stands for a 'paradise' in German, but in Latvian – for a verb 'to show up' in imperative without lengthening marks and exclamation
mark) – the author asks the city, where he has arrived and where there is nothing familiar. The city does not respond. It hides behind the bushes and lamps and behind a silent exterior
accessible to anyone. Time is necessary for obtaining experience, but as soon as it has passed, the experience will have no meaning.

Many shelves of bookshops are filled with the memoirs of emigrants. The great emigration wave took over Latvia in the beginning of the Second World War. Now old people reveal their
experiences in order to incite empathy, but there is rarely anyone to respond. Despite the fact that the stories are full of the feelings of loss, longing for return, disillusionment, and
warnings. People don't change. Emigration – although on different terms – is back on the schedule, and to be honest, it is getting on everyone's nerves. Wishing all the best and a bit of
sentiment, fake worrying from those who stay behind! Besides, half of the emigrants are immigrant descendants, whose belonging to a particular place cannot be identifies so stricly anymore.
Photo stories from workers' villages in the Great Britain show a generally pleasant life – there is no lack of food, drink and yound, beautiful bodies. Celebrities in the USA pose on the
rooftops holding coctail glasses and being photographed among other celebrities. The place has no significance, distance has been abolished, and time will be in future. This time only
benefits await! A story of success by all means. Valuable experience. Emigrants will definitely return, if not tomorrow, then on the day after tomorrow. If not, they will be happy in their
own right. Freedom of choice! Traumas and fear will be overcome, panic will vanish. Or will be erased from memory.

Roman Drits/Romāns Drics/Роман Дриц is a Latvian-born photographer and photography artist based in Hamburg, Germany.